Left ventricular dysfunction in hypertensive patients: an echocardiographic assessment

Echocardiography is noninvasive procedure to assess heart. Ventricular mass increases due to left ventricular hypertrophy and performance of left ventricle decreases with increase in blood pressure. Left ven­tricular diastolic dysfunction (LVDD) is early sign of heart weakness which can be picked up early with Echo. This study was aimed to study cardiac anatomic and functional parametric alteration in echocardiography among hypertensive patients. Methods: This was a non-invasive, cross sectional hospital based retrospective review of the patient record from echo room among the hypertensive patient who undergone echocardiographic as­sessment from September 2017-February 2018 in Shree Birendra Hospital (SBH), Chhauni, Kathmandu. Results: Among 447 hypertensive cases, 232(51.9%) were having normal diastolic function while rest 215(48.1%) were having diastolic dysfunction of the heart. Among total cases evaluated, only 12(2.7%) patients were having ejec­tion fraction lower than 55%, while in rest it was normal. There were 53 (11.9%) cases having some form of as­sociated complication. Gender, Concentric Left Ventricular Hypertrophy and left atrial dilatation has significant difference (p<0.05) with LVDD. Statistically significant differences in age distribution of individuals with different categories of left ventricular systolic dysfunction (LVSD) and LVDD (p˂0.001) was observed. Conclusion: Signifi­cant number of hypertensive individuals were having LVDD though in most of the individual LV ejection fraction was maintained.